If you have a great band with a mediocre drummer, you have a mediocre band. If you have a mediocre band with… — Duke Ellington Copy Share Image
Of the One O'Clock Lab Band after hearing their performance, and sitting in with them at the White House: "I wish it… — Duke Ellington Copy Share Image
There is nothing to keeping a band together. You simply have to have a gimmick, and the gimmick I use is to… — Duke Ellington Copy Share Image
Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct. — Duke Ellington Copy Share Image
The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen. — Duke Ellington Copy Share Image
The common root, of course, comes out of Africa. That's the pulse.The African pulse. It's all the way back from . . . the… — Duke Ellington Copy Share Image
The problem of expressing the contributions that Benny Carter has made to popular music is so tremendous it completely fazes me, so extraordinary a… — Duke Ellington Copy Share Image
If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what I call… — Duke Ellington Copy Share Image
